Mediamarkt: The rabbit race [video] [alternative version]

Credits & Description:

Media: Media Markt Germany
Media: Online
Category: Retail services
Agency: Ogilvy
Geo: Germany
Media Markt Germany: The rabbit race
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, Frankfurt, Germany
Chief Creative Officer: Dr. Stephan Vogel
Executive Creative Director: Felix Fenz
Creative Directors: Nico Ammann, Sascha Dudic
Art Directors: Nico Ammann, Constantin Camesasca, Sebastian Kamp, Joschka Wolf, Hendrik Frey, Tobias Ostry, Markus Günther, Christopher Bueers
Copywriters: Felix Fenz, Sascha Dudic, Bent Kroggel, Christian Urbanski, Thorsten Büsser, Tobias Röben, Katharina Haller
Account Management: Yves Rosengart, David Wilfert, David Henkel, Marc Czymai
Agency Producer: Oliver Kraege
Art Buying: Caroline Walczok
Technical Director: Jens Steffen
Application Engineer: Ralf Zimmermann, Robert Georgi
Photography: Ralph Hargarten
Film Production: Endemol Beyond Gmbh
Film Producer: Sascha Rustmeier, Chris Müller
Directors: Mark Achterberg, Andrea Achterberg
Editors: Baris Zencirli, Gunnar Ohlenschläger, Mathias Köhler
Animation: Leo Dakik
Visual Effects: Sebastian Berresheim , Sebastian Schäfer, Thomas Flechel , Peter Janoschka, Sascha Amic, Iris Tessun, Linda Karakas, Jörg Dittmar
Music Production: TRO GmbH
Avid: Cine Plus Production Service GmbH
Post Production: MMC Studios Köln GmbH, MS&P GmbH, Pop Berlin
Description of the Project:
The Rabbit Race turned Media Markt from the biggest German electronics retailer to the biggest entertainer overnight, creating a never-before-seen and revolutionary live marketing event that Media Markt's target group enjoyed watching, following and sharing.
The Rabbit Race
A content format broadcast live at prime time, on the 9 biggest German private TV stations, as well as online on YouTube's frontpage, Bild.de (Germany's biggest online newspaper) and MediaMarkt.de.
The whole campaign was teased upfront as a sports event that was framed in reports, portraits of the racing bunnies, press conferences and behind-the-scenes material on social media and TV to become earned media content everybody enjoys watching and participating in.
Branded content is still a rare sight in the German advertising landscape; especially on TV, on which it is almost nonexistent. That's the reason why this live marketing campaign marks a revolution in German advertising. Live branded content across all media channels that is able to fascinate, involve and activate new and existing customers in a high-scale performance like The Rabbit Race has done has never been achieved in Germany, if not even Europe.
The Rabbit Race was a revolutionary twist to an otherwise dull 5% discount sales promotion, that created tons of enjoyable branded content, turning the biggest German entertainment electronics retailer to biggest live entertainer over night.
For three months we trained 10 adorable bunnies to race each other in a live TV studio, anchored by a famous German sports commentator.
Customers who shopped at Media Markt prior to the three broadcast races could win back 50% of their money if the bunny's racing number matched the number on their receipt. And with every race, more people were driven into the stores to take part in the game.
The goal was to offer funny and surprising entertainment first and thereby activate the customers to take part by shopping on a race day. The whole campaign was teased upfront as a major sports event and was enjoyable to watch regardless of the weaved-in sales promotion, leading to great awareness and activation without being perceived as advertising in the first place.
The results:
21 Mio. live viewers.
+ 250 Mio. overall campaign net reach.
+18.2% customer increase.
+25% increase in sales
+324% interaction and +40% more followers on facebook.
+ 208% more followers on Twitter.
- #OsterhasenRasen generated roundabout 6.3 mio. twitter impressions.
- 90% of live viewers said they were felt well entertained